We Will Never Forget.(Roe V. Wade)(Column)

Do you have any of those "I'll never forget where I was" memories? January 22, 1973, is one of those times for me.

As I drove to the airport for a meeting at the headquarters of my Lutheran denomination in St. Louis, the car radio was playing in the background. There was no interruption in radio programming for fast-breaking news to catch my attention. There was no somber voice issuing a news alert.

Sandwiched between the all-too-familiar stories of a traffic pile up and a famous actor's divorce, a bland voice announced that there had been a Supreme Court ruling legalizing abortion. Her words spun around in my head. Trimesters? Personhood? Privacy? It sounded awful, but what did it all mean?

When I reached the airport there was no buzz about the Court's decision as I waited in line for a boarding pass, no chatter about the ruling as passengers milled around before departure.

Maybe I had heard the news incorrectly, I thought. Maybe I had been distracted by traffic and had missed important details.

Doubting my own understanding, I knew I had to find out if the Court's ruling was as bad as I thought it was. It turned out to be worse, much worse, as I discovered after a few phone calls.

A sleepless night followed, and at my meeting the next day I used some of my time on the agenda to report on the Court's decision. "What Court decision?" some asked.